Alfie Turmeaus Orchant Seleccion

Acquired this in trade with StevieB. Many thanks for this very nice smoke, Steve.

I can easily agree with Steve's description of this blend. The difference here is in the way we smoke. I retrohale every puff and that made this a cigar leaf dominant blend for me. The cigar leaf has a wonderful nuttiness and earthiness that I really like, but the Black Cav is just shy of enough sweetness to make this a 4 star blend for me. I find that the "English" portion of the blend acts as a base of sorts for the CL and BC. I like that and this would be an awesome smoke with just a little more sweetness. It's very interesting to see how smoking style can influence the perception of a blend.

I've added a little of McClelland's stoved Virginias to it to increase the sweetness and have now been enjoying the hell out of this. I feel I should rate it as it comes though so 3 stars it is.

I rate the strength by body, not nicotine, and this comes in at medium to strong. Nic is close to medium. No added flavorings detected. Taste is medium to full. Burns very well with a short drying time. Smokes the same in briar or cob.

Alfie Turmeaus - Orchant Seleccion.

Having recently reviewed pure Latakia to get an idea of the flavour on its own I left myself feeling a bit fed up with the taste but I thought this might be a good blend to get it back in my good books due to there being lots of tobacco tastes included as opposed to my recent 'overly smoky' experience! The aroma of the mix is just what I'm after right now, the Latakia can be noticed but it doesn't smell only of that. In fact, looking at the blend it seems to include a really even amount of each of the stated tobaccos at a good level of moisture.

The taste is EXACTLY what the smell suggests: very fair with all the tastes. Every different tobacco can be identified without the Latakia bombarding me with smokiness, just what I wanted right now! The sweetness from the black Cavendish is beautiful in its strength, a perfect amount. If I retro-hale the smoke then the Cigar Leaf becomes a touch stronger, without doing so they are all quite even in strength. It doesn't contain that much nicotine, it isn't too feeble but I don't think it would be too suited the morning nicotine charge spot! The room note is quite light, in both aroma and smoke quantity. I could smoke this incessantly all day long and would remain bite free, it's a very chilled out smoke!

At the beginning I said how I had made myself 'fed up' of the Latakia taste and this was exactly what I needed to get it back in my good books. A rounded, soft and fair tasting blend!

Four stars.

Just got a 50g tin from the Turmeaus shop in London as an early Christmas gift for me. I usually get some McLintock Syrian Latakia, however the lovely man in the shop recommended this one. He opened their demo jar and instantly you can recognise the smokiness of the Latakia and the gorgeous smell of cigar leaves. Beautiful. And the fact that it comes in a round tin, sadly a thing that is becoming less and less common, makes it perfect for cellaring. Once open, it is a little bit too moist but give it half an hour drying time and it's perfect. Smokes very well, if only a bit hot. Very rounded flavours, nothing stands out too much but all the various tobaccos used are clearly present. Very nice dense ash, smoke it slowly and it will burn nice and regular without going out. Last third of the bowl is a bit strong but nothing that requires sitting down. Perfect with a nice strong black coffee first thing in the morning. Merry Christmas all!